April 29th, 2011 | Posted by acidicice

General consensus around Babyice’s sleeping issue has been that it could most likely be separation anxiety. He is at the right age for it (15 months) and our schedules filling up with gym, etc could very well be the cause. So we’ve slowed down and tried a few things to eliminate the problem.

I went to gym alone on Monday and Rudi stayed home with him. We do not let him watch any TV in the late afternoon, the TV stays off. We’ve switched him to the Paramalat growing up (whole) milk for his night time bottle. We’ve put extra blankets and pillows in his cot and made sure he is dressed warmly and not cold. His dummy is attached to his clothing on his dummy clip, so it is always within his reach. We have on brought him to bed with us if he struggles to sleep and for the first time in a long time he actually fell asleep there. Last night we tried to give him water instead of formula to try and discourage milk feeds at night as he is probably using it as a soothing mechanism and doesn’t need the feed since he slept through with no problems before. He would have NONE of it! He kept crying, refusing the water and continued to voice his unhappiness until Rudi relented and gave him a milk bottle, which he happily drained. Rudi then ensured he was asleep by rocking him to sleep in his arms before putting him down.

This is more irritating than it is anything else. I’m not concerned about his health or wellbeing…but he has gone from a very good habit, to a bad one. Perhaps it is a phase and we can power through it, break our sleep and hope he settles himself into a proper routine of sleeping through again. All his life he has been good about getting himself into routines. When do parents need to intervene? When the problem is affecting their emotional or physical wellbeing. At this stage I don’t feel that it is. He is developing well and is a happy baby in general. I think that the night wakings are throwing us for a loop more than they are affecting him. Is it simply our impatience and intolerance that is making this process so irritating?

I don’t know.

So I have decided to give up. When he wakes up at night he will get a milk bottle and the love and closeness he needs/wants and we will be fine. He will be fine. If things don’t improve and we have more trouble than we can manage, I will speak to someone who helps with sleep training or the likes. Right now I am as broke as a hobo and can afford to lose sleep more than I can afford anything else. I’m still tired, but it seems to be better than it was.

Gah. Thanks for everyone who has tried to help. I appreciate it. I will let you know how it goes.